HOME AND EDUCATION

...I found myself cne day, not long ago, with a copy of the June report of the New York State Health Department as the only available reading matter...

...I strained it through four layers of cheesecloth, allowing the whey to drip out until the curd which remained had the consistency of a porridge...

...It was obviously impossible to accommodate them in the one modr-ratcly-sized school kitchen, where the cooking is taught...

...It was she, too, who started the Fresh Air Camp for tuberculous children...

...Being interested in this latest project of hers, I followed it up and was so fortunate as to get a paper on the subject read by Miss Torrey before the National Educational Association in July.—c...

...now teaspoonfuls must be changed to cup-fuls and cupfuls to gallons...

...I was surprised to find that a cheese which is almost wholly free from fat, as this must be, could have so smooth a texture...

...In a few minutes the curd sank to the bottom of the dish and the greater part of the whey could easily be poured off...

...It is peculiarly smooth and velvety, can be made into cakes and cut into slices...

...And when we came together, principal and teachers, to talk the matter over, to consider the advantages and the difficulties of the plan, other arguments presented themselves...

...We f.lso allowed those who gave orders the day before, to have milk and sandwiches on Tuesdays and Thursdays...

...Perhaps the heft proof of the value of our work is that other schools have demanded the same privilege...

...jam-sandwiches...

...The yield from the quart cf buttermilk was about 4 ounces...

...Of course the report gave it as the rate of infant mortality, and right there came the chance to breathe in human interest...

...There was an hour and twenty minuter in which to prepare the lunch, twenty Minutes in which to arrange the trays, and twenty minutes in, which to bring back the dishes and wash them...

...But if any one of these elements is wanting, you can hardly hope for success...

...The bulletin suggests that this be spread on bread in place of butter...

...There are 49 such cities with population ranging from 8,000 to 100,000...

...Others, having no school kitchens, are obliged to hire a woman to superintend the work...

...but that was something we did not dream of at first...

...In doing this I heated the buttermilk only to 100 Fahrenheit, or, to a temperature a little above that of the body...

...In the short time that I was experimenting, I found one other good use for it...

...We have been able, as a special treat to serve penny horns of ice cream, made of "truly" cream...

...It has to be breathed into them...

...On the other hand it is much harder to do it in cities like New York and Buffalo, with their 4,000,000 and 400,000 inhabitants...

...The work did not interfere with the regular classes, which .-ere held in the afternoon...

...First I compared Rochester with all the rest of the state...

...I added to it a small amount of vinegar, seasoned with salt and cayenne, and used it, as a salad dressing, on cucumbers...

...How should we select them from the hundreds in the school...

...The process, however, by which large quantities of buttermilk cheese can be easily made has been worked out for the first time at the experiment station...

...Even after we had decided to make the experiment, for experiment it was last January, there were many questions to be answered...

...Our quarters have been small and often crowded, but there has been a degree of orderliness and courtesy not often manifested even by older people...

...Anxiety was plainly visible and the pennies were made as prominent as possible...

...Butter may be rubbed into it but that does not seem necessary so far as the taste is concerned...

...One woman, who earned her living by scrubbing office floors, asked her employer if he would pay her partly in pennies...

...But that is not quite fair...

...We soon trained them, however, to work without pausing, each step being planned...

...Our time was limited...

...Some are working along the same lines we have followed...

...Those who are interested should send for Bulletin No...

...The parents have, we think, appreciated what we try to do for the children...

...If you have a generous friend, who will help you with the work as Miss Hyams did us, a sympathetic principal, helpful fellow teachers and willing, capable girls like ours, I would suggest that you also start penny lunches and see how much pleasure they will give you in spite of the additional work...

...I commend these figure to towns that are disappointed at the census returns and are hoping to make a better showing in 1920...

...We knew, however, that even the poorest of the children often had pennies to spend and we wished to offer something wholesome and nourishing that would at the same time be more attractive than chewing gum, all-day suckers, and cheap candy...

...As the girls grew expert and learned to woik rapidly, we found it possible on some days to carry on a lesson at the same time the lunch was being prepared...

...We arranged that three of the older classes should do the cooking and we varied the menu so that they might have experience in preparing different kinds of dishes...

...She answered that her grand-children went to the Winthrop School, and they thought so much ef their lunches that she wanted the pennies for them...

...They must be made, too, of low-priced materials, for we did not wish to give food away and we could charge only a penny...

...In these schools, two cents is charged...

...The next step was to plan the work for the girls in the cocking classes...

...from a very backward sixth grade...

...There are now nine schools serving 2,000 children...

...We knew that they would benefit in their own lives from the opportunity to serve others, but we wondered if we could so apportion the hours that their own school work would net suffer...

...We were soon serving one hundred children...

...It made a very good substitute for what is known as German Cream Dressing, which is made out of whipped cream...

...For most of us, however, it is enough to know how to work with small quantities...

...I turned over the pages idly for a time until it occurred to mc to look for Rochester and to find out how many babies Dr...

...The cheese should be seasoned with salt or with salt and pepper...

...We believed that pupils, even those who had had good breakfasts, would do better work during the latter part of the morning if they had a light lunch at about half past ten...

...In six months I have found only two girls who were in the slightest degree unwilling to do this and they repented...

...l. H. THAT "an ounce" of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is the argument that Miss Hyams, one of the trustees of the Tuberculosis Hospital, made when she asked us at the Winthrop School to work cut the problem of serving penny lunches to anaemic children...

...Under-feeding, she said, particularly among children, led to anaemia, and anaemia to tuberculosis...

...Conducted by BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE and CAROLINE L. HUNT Penny Lunches How Boston is Trying to Prevent Tuberculoids by Feed.ng Anaemic School Children By EMMELINE TORREY Note:—When in Bosten last February I heard that Miss Isabel Hyams, one of the trustees of the Tuberculosis Hospital, had persuaded the teacher of Domestic Science in the Winthrop School, Miss Ernmeline Torrey, to make an experiment in serving penny lunches to anaemic children...

...So I threw out of the count New York City and Buffalo and the rural districts and compared Rochester with the smaller cities of the state only...

...How should we serve them...

...that they must offer due variety and be fitted to the children's needs and tastes...

...They had handled very small quantities of food...

...The teacher of the third grace says she saw a marked improvement in the work done by her pupils between eleven and twelve o'clock and that when it come to the final test in arithmetic, a lesson which had been taught during this hoar, the class reached a much higher average than it ever had before...

...It was Miss Hyams, who, as our readers will remember, with Miss Frances Ster started the Louisa M. Alcott Club and worked out a plan fur teaching Housekeeping and Hygiene which took the first prize at the International Tuberculosis Congress in Washington...

...They had had the usual experience of girls in cooking schools, seme for six months, some for a year, while others were only beginning...

...I found that Rochester by making itself a better place for babies than the average of these other and smaller and more managerable cities had saved 29 babies under one year of age in Jane alone, or, while the other cities had lost five babies for every 20,000 inhabitants, Rochester Lad lost only two...

...PERHAPS the best result of the lunches was the training it save in proptness...

...We looked to our principal for a decision as to the number of children to be fed...

...This makes the cost not far from 10 cents a pound...

...First, in regard to the children served: Our principal and I have both noticed that they have improved in health under the regular, systematic feeding, even though the quantity served has been small...

...We knew that they must be plain, wholesome, palatable...

...Not wishing to burden us, she suggested fifty...

...It was at first hard for the girls and equally so for me...

...Before experimenting I bought for twenty-five cents a dairy thermometer, but this is not absolutely necessary, for the temperature need not be exact...

...New Uses for Buttermilk THEY have been making cheese out of buttermilk of late at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station...

...Twenty-nine babies saved in one month...

...Mothers asked permission to add to the list and teachers had special pupils who, they thought, should have the privilege...

...This is not the case, and the fineness of the curd seems to be the very factor which contributes most to the quality of buttermilk cheese...

...The two younger classes filled the mugs of milk before their regular lessens and also helped in washing the dishes, and these were numerous, particularly on bread and milk days...

...I find, however, that the impression is general that it must be very difficult to strain a curd which is so finely divided as that of buttermilk...

...How many children should we try to feed...

...But that was all and the disappointed ones went away, with sighs but no complaints, to buy graham crackers...

...How far could the pupils in the cooking classes aid us...

...These were selected from the baby class of the school, the little third-graders...

...For Those Who Wish Their Towns to Grow THERE is not much of human interest, as a rule, in statistics...

...Buttermilk Cream FOLLOWING the directions in the bulletin, I made also what is called Buttermilk Cream...

...This eighth grade furnished us also with helpers, of various kinds, for the work...

...We have never had a deficit, for the children bring their pennies without any urging and seem to enjoy the privilege...

...As for the older girls, they have grown in helpfulness, unselfishness, in the spirt of service and in general womanliness, for we have all worked together, teachers and pupils, for the common good...

...Following, in a general way, the directions given in the bulletin, I made a quart of buttermilk into cheese recently and found it so simple a matter that I wonder that anyone doubted that it could be done...

...The remainder I strained, while it was still hot, through four layers of cheese cloth...

...Change Infant Mortality to Babies Saved, then imagine you see the babies and it makes all the difference in the world...

...Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we served milk am...

...I heated the buttermilk over hot water in a double boiler, bringing it to 1-10 Fahrenheit and then removed it from the water...

...We decided to have the food carried from the kitchen to the classroom on tiays and served to the children at their desks...

...WHAT have been the results, you may ask, of the expenditure of so much thought, time and energy...

...This is not an entirely new product, for I was told recently by a woman, that when she lived on a farm a few years ago, she preferred to make cottage cheese out of half buttermilk and half ordinary sour milk, to making it out of sour milk, alone...

...The fact should be kept in mind, however, that the nutritive value of this cheese is not so great as that of more expensive kinds...

...We eliminated dawdling, unnecessary awkwardness a.- carelessness, and the girls gained in so many ways that the lunches soon moved along easily and were no burden either to them or to myself...

...We have served a out 800 lunches a week, varying from 150 to 300 a day, our record being 370...

...I noticed this especially, I remember, when one day the ice cream began to grow remarkably less in the freezer and the children knew that some would have to be left out...

...Besides we were trying to give the pupils an abundance of fresh air and we knew that fresh air and a healthy hunger usually go hand in hand...

...Goler had saved of late by his fight for a pure milk supply...

...It is much easier to save babies in a little country village than it is in a city of 200,000 inhabitants like Rochester...

...We did not tarry long at our fifty-children limit...

...We decided, too, to add graham crackers to our bill-of-fare and to permit a.-.y child who wished, t<- buy these every day...

...Surprised at the request, he asked her reason...

...WE DECIDED first on the foods to be offered, selecting oatmeal, cream of wheat, shredded wheat, rice soup, potato chowder, milk soups of various kinds, apple sauce, stewed prunes, rice pudding, corn starch blanc-mange, and molasses cookies...

...What foods should we serve...

...and from the eighth grade...

...195 published at the station in Madison, Wisconsin...

...In fact, the quality of buttermilk cheese is net nearly so likely to be injured by heat as that of ordinary cottage cheese...

...It has very much the texture of the cream cheese of commerce which sells in small cakes at the rate of 40 or 50 cents a pound...